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Guecian
=Overview= Basically, I thought it would be interesting to create my own language. I used inspiration mostly from the European languages I love the most, like Spanish, Italian, French, Romanian and Hungarian, and using a predominantly Romance spelling and grammar system. =Writing System= Alphabet The Guecian alphabet consists of 31 letters. Acute Accent The acute accent (Guecian aćentagua) is placed over the consonants 'c', 'm', 'n', 's' and 'z' to create the letters 'ć', 'ḿ', 'ń', 'ś' and 'ź'. These five letters represent completely different sounds to their parent letters and are treated as individual letters in their own right. They are placed after the unmodified letter in alphabetical order. So for example nese comes before ńaqua in dictionaries. Foreign Letters The letters 'k' and 'w' are not used productively in Guecian, as their sounds are produced by the letters 'c' and 'u/v' respectively. This is similar to most Romance languages, such as French and Spanish. However, they are used in some loanwords - such as kilogram, slideshow, watt etc. Some more Guecian-friendly alternatives see marginal use - for example quilogram, sliydśou and uatt. Digraphs Gc One of the more common digraphs in Guecian is '-gc'. This combination is often found at the end of a word, for example in the words śinagc (walk), cuźegc (toe) and govogc (to judge). This represents the sound /g/, so the 'c' is effectively silent. There is an oversion to using the letter 'g' at the end of a word in Guecian, and so if the last sound in a word is /g/, then chances are it will be written "gc". Uo The letter combination uo is very common in Guecian. It represents the vowel /ɤ/, ie an unrounded version of the vowel /o/. 'Uo' is found fairly frequently in Guecian, in any part of a word. For example in the words cuon (horse), prinzuo (prince) and uosta (west). Often, on occassions where there is a limited number of characters allowed, the single letter 'ů' is used to represent the vowel /ɤ/. So uosta would be written ůsta etc. Dź Dź is another high-use combination. It represents the affricate consonant /dʒ/, like the English j''' in 'j'oin. It is found in any part of a word, for example in dźungel (jungle), dźigso (jigsaw) and bridź (bridge (card game)). Pz '''Pz represents the consonant cluster /ps/. It is primarily found at the beginning of a word, such as in pzicologia (psychology), pześśa (fish) and pzugara (coffin). It is important that the 'p' is pronounced, as English dialects leave out the initial /p/ sound in words with a similar starting combination. Tn The uncommon combination tn is seen mostly at the beginning of a word. It denotes the sound /c/, ie a palatal /t/ sound. However, it is also common to pronounce it simply as /t/, and ignoring the palatalization. It is found in primarily obscure words such as tnunda (cannibal), but is present in a few common words such as tnel (to know) and tnatega (skeleton). =Basic Grammar= Nouns Gender Guecian nouns are put into one of two genders, Masculine and Feminine. Words that end in an a''' are usually feminine, whereas nouns that end in another vowel or a consonant are ususally masculine. There are a few exceptions to this rule, for example the word pata meaning "father", dispite ending in an 'a', is a masculine noun as it describes a male person. Examples: *Masculine: ćereye (branch), ńac (neck), fu (boy) *Feminine: sequea (tree), squilisca (snake), lańa (woman) Number There are two numbers in Guecian, singular and plural. Plurals are formed by adding certain endings to the singular forms. In feminine nouns (which usually end in an '''a), the ending '-i' is used. For masculine nouns ending in a vowel, an n''' is added to the end of it to turn the noun into a plural. For masculine nouns ending in a consonant, an '''-en is added to the end of it. Examples: Articles Guecian employs six different articles, with each one chosen depending on the Gender or number of the noun. Definite Article The definite article (english 'the') is put before the noun which it is describing. There are four different definite articles, and which one is used depends on the number and gender of the noun. Examples: *'do' fu *'dol' fun *'os' lańa *'osai' lańai Indefinite Article The definite article (same as English 'a' or 'an') is placed before the noun which it is describing. There are two different indefinite articles: ed used before masculine nouns, and od used before feminine nouns. Examples: *'ed' om *'od' lańa *''ed om guerevagc pe osai lańai'' - a man said to the women Adjectives Adjectives are simple in Guecian. Each adjective comes in three forms, the normal, comparative and superlative form. To alter an adjective into it's comparative form (so in English for example, changing 'nice' to 'nicer') you add the suffix '-t', and to change an adjective into it's superlative form ('nice' to 'nicest') you add the ending '-ref'. Examples: Degrees of Comparison One could also use certain words to increase or decrease the intensity of the adjectives. For example, pleruj is the equivalent to English 'more'. *''oćosta om uste pleruj coḿendex quo te''. Literally translated is: "That man is more funny than you". In this case, one could use this sentence or "oćosta om uste coḿendext quo te literally translated as: "That man is funnier than you". Both these sentences have the same effect. Also, neńa is the equivalent to English "less" or "not as". *''oćosta om uste neńa coḿendex quo te'' means literally "That man is less/not as funny as you." Verbs Guecian verbs are fairly simple, and the suffixes added to them to denote when the action took place are uniform and the same in almost all verbs in the language. Take the verb śin which means "to walk". Examples: *''nea śinujeva par dez minuten'' *"We have been walking for ten minutes *''au śinagc pi dol mulen'' *"I walked to the shops" Numbers In Guecian, numbers come in several different forms. Examples: *''ćo fonagc trecded''. *"He phoned three times". *''dol anemalen traśagc duaquita'' *"The animals marched in twos" Pronouns Personal Pronouns Personal Pronouns in Guecian are easy, as many take the same form in all positions. So for example the English words "I" and "me" are both represented in Guecian by the pronoun "au". Examples: *''qua uste beya'' *"it is nice" *''nea guerevagc pe ćo'' *"we spoke to him" Possessive Pronouns From the Personal Pronouns you can create Possessive Pronouns. The possessive pronouns is put AFTER the noun of which the pronoun posesses. For example: Instead of: *''aun sisa fecate'' Write: *''sisa fecate aun'' "Cat Black My" meaning "My black cat" Interrogative Pronouns Interrogative Pronouns are like the English "wh" words "what", "who", "why" etc. =Dictionary= Guecian Dictionary =Example text= Category:Languages